65 entries from December 2012

December 26, 2012

The rush for bargain summer holidays starts today as travel firms slash hundreds of pounds from the cost of sunshine breaks. Full story >>

VOCABULARYYou can refer to a sudden great increase in wealth, success, or luck as a bonanza. Obviously, the austerity program and the government sticking to it for the last four years has not led to a bonanza in business investment.

The cartoon shows the recording of the Queen's Christmas Message. The Queen, wearing 3D glasses, remarkes, "Pity we couldn't reshoot my parachute jump at the Olympics too!" — a reference to the stunt during the Olympics opening ceremony in which the Queen and James Bond (or rather stuntmen playing them) were seen to parachute into the Olympic Stadium.

COMMENTOf course, you don't usually wear the 3D glasses when you're being filmed — they're supposed to be for viewing only! Perhaps the Queen thinks they make her look cool ...

UK startup firm Touchnote has launched a new application for Apple and Android devices that allows people to create personalized Christmas cards using a novel Facebook integration. Hayley Platt reports.

TRANSCRIPTREPORTER: It's a tradition which began in Britain in the 1840's. However in recent years many have chosen to send e cards instead. Now a new app which combines technology and printing could help reverse the declining trend. Mike and Linda Thomson are using Touchnote to send family abroad a photo card - made of real paper. Within seconds of taking a snap it's re-designed as a greeting card. The following day it's printed and sent on its way. MIKE THOMSON, TOUCHNOTE CUSTOMER: "It shows that you care a bit more, it's just a bit more personable. It's something that family members will stick up on their firesides, put up on the wall and refer back to and appreciate rather than something that's stuck away on a laptop that they never see or never open." REPORTER: A recent survey by Royal Mail showed that 80 percent of people prefer traditional cards to e cards. And 25 percent said they would be making a bigger effort to send them this Christmas. Touchnote hopes to sell a record number of cards this year - Raam Thakrar is its co-founder. RAAM THAKRAR: "We communicate in a very digital way but the problem with that is there's a slight lack of substance to it. We don't have things that we can hold, we don't have things that last forever. What we're doing is bringing something back that does last forever." REPORTER: Each greeting costs £1.49 and you don't even have to provide an address. Using Facebook, the App will notify your friends that you wish to send them a card and prompts them for their address. With more and more people complaining social media is isolating them rather than uniting them, Touchnote believes there'll be signficant demand for this new take on a time-honoured tradition.

The Daily Mail says retailers will be trying to lure millions to shop online on Christmas Day by bringing forward the traditional Boxing Day start to the sales. Full story >>

VOCABULARYFrenzy or a frenzy is great excitement or wild behaviour that often results from losing control of your behaviour. • Talk of possible gun control reforms spurred a frenzy of shopping this week in Mississippi.

December 23, 2012

The first three scenes show children in various war zones (Afghanistan, Africa, and Syria?) who all want the same thing for Christmas—an end to violence. Below them, we can see an NRA member sitting by the fireside surrounded by guns. He wants more guns for Christmas (the NRA's response to the latest shooting was to call for all US schools to have armed guards).

Floods ravage parts of the United Kingdom just days before Christmas. Paul Chapman reports.

TRANSCRIPTREPORTER: It's going to be a wet, wet Christmas for people in some parts of the UK this year. Torrential rain has brought severe floods to several areas and forecasters are warning of more to come. Maurice Pearson's one of the many whose home has been flooded. RESIDENT MAURICE PEARSON: "I've lived here for 30 years and before that lived in the village. We've always had a bit of flooding because the drainage system in the village is Victorian. It's been promised to be renewed for...40 years." REPORTER: The South West is one of the worst-hit areas. But severe flood warnings have been issued from Devon and Cornwall to North Yorkshire. Roads and railways are also suffering. It's thrown Christmas travel plans into chaos. UNIDENTIFIED TRAVELLER SAYING: "We're going up to Cumbria hoping to get there in the early evening. We started out an hour early in anticipation for the disruption." UNIDENTIFIED TRAVELLER SAYING: "We're good British people and we just go with the flow." REPORTER: More heavy rain and strong winds were expected across much of the country on Sunday.

VOCABULARYIf someone bugs a place, they hide tiny microphones in it which transmit what people are saying. • He had her followed everywhere, bugged her phones, called her at restaurants and parties and vetted her friends.

EXPLANATIONThe quote means that studying history is necessary to avoid repeating past mistakes (the First and Second World Wars, for example). The cartoonist plays on the phrase 'history lesson': history lesson at school, and the lessons to be learnt from the study of history. The message is that America seems to have learnt nothing from earlier school shootings (Columbine and Virginia Tech being the worst tragedies in recent years).

Paris' favorite lady gets a shiny birthday present as the last of eight new bells is completed in a Normandy bell foundry. Tara Cleary reports.

TRANSCRIPTREPORTER: Foundry workers in Normandy, France face searing heat as they mix metal for the last of Notre Dame Cathedral's eight new bells. The Paris landmark will celebrate its 850th anniversary in 2013 and the new bells are a sort of architectural birthday gift. Foundry President, Paul Bergamo says a lot of research went into reproducing the sound quality of the bells that were in the cathedral's belfry during the French Revolution. PAUL BERGAMP, PRESIDENT OF CORNILLE HAVARD BELL FOUNDRY: "The aim of the project is to reconstitute the sound in terms of power, in terms of notes, of the bells before the French Revolution."REPORTER: The team has been working for several months on the Notre Dame bells and is understandably proud. STEPHANE MOUTON, DIRECTOR OF PRODUCTION, CORNILLE HAVARD BELL FOUNDRY: "This only happens once in a lifetime. We're expecting these to last 250-300 years. It's not like we're going to make more new bells for Notre Dame, not our generation." REPORTER: Besides new ringers, the cathedral has upgraded its lighting and renovated the organ. The last bell, named Anne-Genevieve, will stay in the mold for 10 days and will be inaugurated with the rest of its bronze counterparts at Notre Dame on February 2nd.

December 17, 2012

Here's another activity based on Christmas ads I did with my EM Normandie students (see here for an earlier one).

INSTRUCTIONSPut the students in pairs. Tell one student in each pair to turn around or cover their eyes as the first ad is played. The student who watched the ad then has to tell their partner what happened in the ad, giving as much detail as possible. When they've done that, show the ad again with everybody watching. Change roles, and repeat with the second ad.

The ads are only about 30 seconds long, so are ideal for this type of activity. They also contain some unusual sound effects which should make things more interesting for those not watching. And, of course, there's plenty of useful vocabulary you can focus on.

FIRST AD - EBAY PONY

SECOND AD - HALFORDS BIKE

NOTE
You could also show this version of the Halfords ad with a funny spoof ending.

I already posted something about Palabea way back in 2008 (see here), but they've launched a new version, and Palabea is now totally different. Here's what they say:

Palabea—the speaking world is the first marketplace that allows users from all over the world to learn languages and share knowledge while speaking via video chat about a topic they are really interested in!
At Palabea you can create palabeas (video chat about a topic) for free and earn money for that. You can create online lessons via video chat, upload video tutorials, organize a teaching schedule and fix a price for your palabeas.
If you want to know more about Palabea.com, please visit our Press site. There you will find a collection of our press material.

COMMENTI haven't tried the Palabea, but if you have, I'd be interested to know what you think. Please leave a comment below.

December 14, 2012

It's a long-standing tradition in the UK for major retailers to produce a TV commercial for Christmas (you can see a selection of this year's of the best and worst 2012 Xmas ads here). Some of these are good lesson material. I used this one from Asda as part of a lesson about Christmas customs in the UK. I showed it to my EM Normandie students and got them (in groups) to make a list of all the actions that the mum carries out (see list
here). I then played it again, pausing to check their answers, and highlighting vocabulary. We finished with a discussion about whether the ad was sexist or not (see 'Related articles' below).

TRANSCRIPTDAD: Perfect. MUM: No, sorry. Could we just have a look at that one? VOICEOVER: It doesn't just happen by magic. Behind every great Christmas there's mum. And behind mum, there's Asda. DAD: What's for tea, love?

Here's a Christmas crossword I produced for my EM Normandie students. Unfortunately, I couldn't embed it, so you'll have to click on the image above, or here, to actually do the crossword. Alternatively, you can download a PDF version here.